Revisited, Replaced
by The Apocalypse Lock
Summary: It was something I had once dismissed as a myth. Now everything made sense. "I believe you." Regulus looked shocked. M for violence, language, possibly sex.
1. 1 Hell

A/N: I've noticed in fics dealing with the Death Eaters in the first War era, nothing is ever even hinted at about Regulus Black and the Horcruxes. I find that very upsetting, it was a crucial (yet small) point in the books. What with Regulus having taken the real locket and all. However, I'm getting much better at writing for my beloved Severus. So I give my fans this "second chance" fic, revolving around Severus with Regulus playing a key part!

And I know you all will probably hate me because I now have FOUR fanfics going (The Fairest One of All, Obsidian Fire, Beyond the Soul [which I'm not sure I'll finish], and this one), but I promise I will be totally updating more frequently!

One last thing: -dances- I'm so happy with this chapter. Okay, that's not the last thing, just wanted to say that. I may be starting a Harry Potter VBlog here pretty soon. I've got a nice webbycam and my favourite HP VBlogger hasn't updated since January. :B So I'd like to know if you all have any questions about me or my opinions on HP stuff for me to answer in my first few VBlogs. Leave them in a review! Also, love to know your opinions on this. Never written in first person present before

My face is wet with tears and – wait, what? How can my face be wet when my face is nonexistent?

My throat no longer aches, and… Why am I able to tell that? Why can I feel?

If I can feel… can I move? I lift my head. Yes, I can move. What in Merlin's name is going on?

I can't see. It's black. So what am I to do? Open my eyes? Yes. I open my eyes.

It's still dark. I wonder absently where I am. I should still be in the Shrieking Shack, yes. Someone obviously saved me from bleeding to death, though how I am not entirely sure. What do I remember?

I remember the Dark Lord believing that it was I who was the true master of the Elder Wand. The Stick of Destiny. What a load of bullocks. There is no such thing, the Hallows do not exist. Well, perhaps excepting that damned cloak. It's at least lasted through two generations of Potters, and hasn't lost an ounce of its powers as far as I can tell.

But enough about that. I remember him sending Nagini flying towards me. That pain. Oh, _Merlin_, that pain. It was almost welcoming, though. Death would have been a relief. But I am obviously not dead. What do I recall after that?

I recall… memories. Many of them. Pleasant and not-so-pleasant. I released them. Because Potter needed to know what was coming. He needed to be warned that he must die in order to vanquish the Dark Lord. And then I remember… Lily. Lily's eyes. That lovely green. How was she there?

Oh yes. That was Potter. Alright, now I am disgusted with myself. And if I'm still alive… Oh, dear lord. Potter still has those memories, I would think. I am not dead, and he knows I loved his mother. Could this be any worse?

My eyes have adjusted to the light. The layout of this room seems different than I recall. Perhaps I was simply not paying attention. Of course I was not, I was busy pleading for my life. So I could alert Potter.

I stand up and cross to the door, passing a bureau with a mirror placed atop it.

That is not my reflection… is it?

I pause at the mirror. My face is so much thinner. _I'm _so much thinner. And my hair… the same length, but much less greasy. Is this what I looked like as a teenager? Ugh, I aged well, that's for sure.

I'm just delirious, that's all. And dizzy as hell. Blood loss does that, I suppose.

I step out into the hallway.

The layout of the Shack has completely changed. The hallway to the left ends abruptly. It shouldn't. There should still be another three rooms. There is not. The corridor to the right leads down the stairs.

I hear shouting. And something glass breaking.

There's a scream.

That was not just glass. That was a bottle. A bottle of some rather disgusting Muggle alcohol.

I know exactly where I am. How did I get here?

I hear more shouting, the words slurred and incoherent. I can make out a few words and phrases. Son. Ugly. Freak, the both of you.

No. No, no no. I shut my eyes. No. I'm dead. Let me be dead. Not back here. I'm not here. I'm in the Shrieking Shack. Or I'm dead. Not here. _Not here._

There's a loud thud from downstairs. I know what I'll see when I go down there. Her head hitting the edge of the counter, blood spattering against the floor.

Is this hell? I had never given a thought to either heaven or hell, but now I was certain. This was hell, and I was doomed to relive my worst memories for all eternity. This was going to be worse than living.

"Stop it! _Stop it!_" she shrieked. I take one step down the stairs.

"…psycho bitch!" More tinkling of glass against the floor, a sputtering noise and something rolling across the floor. She had just lost a tooth. Blood was pouring from her mouth, I was sure.

"Toby…! _Tobias, STOP IT!_" she sobbed. I take another step.

A dragging noise; he pulled her from the floor to her feet. By the hair. I take another two steps.

Crack. Her already injured head smacking against the refrigerator. Two more steps.

"…fuckin' with m' head…!" Crack. Again, head snapping back against the refrigerator as he shook her.

One more step. I reach the first floor. I can see the light from the kitchen to my immediate right.

I can't do this. I can't watch him kill her again. Knowing that there is nothing I can do about it. My wand is locked away….

No. No, I can feel it in my pocket. That's not right. I distinctly remember, he had taken it at this point and locked it away with his alcohol and firearms. Why is my wand in my pocket?

I can do something about this. This time I can! This can't be hell.

I turn the corner, my hand silently slipping into my pocket.

"Severus! _Severus, please!_" she cries, seeing my wand. She has no idea how I got it, but she doesn't care.

Now he puts his hand to her throat. I know that he's going to try to choke her. I know that he's going to throw her aside in a minute to hurt me. And in the process, she is going to hit her head on the counter again and break her neck.

But that won't happen this time.

"_Avada Kedavra!_"

First of all, I cannot believe those were the words I chose to use. If I remember correctly, I am not yet a Death Eater. That happens tomorrow. And here I am, killing people already.

Second off, I just murdered my own father. I suppose I can't really call him a father anymore, that son of a bitch. I haven't called him father since I was six. I haven't called him father for thirty-two years. Or, at this point, twelve years. How old does that really make me?

I can't bother with these thoughts. Tobias falls to the floor. My instincts snap back into gear. I shove my wand into my pocket and stumble forward to catch my mother as she falls.

"S-Severus… My boy… My little boy…"

I hold her tightly to my chest. I haven't called her mother for years, either. All she ever did was deflect his rage away from her and on to me. But she was still my mother. She still fed and clothed me. She never locked me in my bedroom with no food or water for days on end, until I was on the brink of death. She even occasionally gave me a galleon or two to go to Flourish and Blotts.

She was my mum, and regardless of her actions, I still love her. She still treated me a hundred times better than that drunk ever did.

"Yes, Eileen." My voice sounds foreign. "I'm here. And you're here. You're safe."

My second chance has finally begun.


	2. 2 RAB

A/N: Internet was disconnected from my laptop while I'm at home, so I can't update here. However, I'll be moving into the dorms on August 17th, and I'll have free wireless from then until next May when I have to move out (although my mum and sister may have moved to Alaska by then, so I could be living with my aunt who also has wireless).

Saw DH part 2. SPOILER ALERT (don't read the next few sentence if you don't want it to be ruined)! I had heard a rumour before seeing the movie that they added in a part with Sev cradling Lily's dead body, but I certainly didn't believe it. And then it happened. And his death was too violent! I bawled through the whole thing, like, siriusly. Really, I cried when Griphook told about the dragon being trained to expect pain. It was riddikulus. And I bawled after it ended and all the way to the restaurant and back home.

I might make a blog about this fic for me to update like I have for Obsidian Fire. That way when I'm not working on it or there's been a long while since a chapter was posted I can let you all know what's going on.

Sorry for the long A/N.

As always, anything you recognise does not belong to me. 

We haven't spoken since we disposed of the body. If one of his Muggle "friends," which are more like drunk thugs if you ask me, reports him missing, no one at all will suspect that I murdered him in cold blood. There is not a trace of him here. Or anywhere, for that matter.

Now my main thought is how the hell I returned here. I was surely dead. Killed by the Dark Lord himself. Well, his snake, but he sent it on me, so it may as well have been him. I was dead, and I am still certain there is no afterlife. This isn't afterlife. This is simply life. Like someone forced a Time-Turner over my head and spun it too much.

I don't think my brain will have the capacity for all of these memories. Two different, parallel sets is what I will have from this point forward, and my head hurts.

I would bet this has something to do with that meddling old fool. Albus Dumbledore. Did he send me back somehow because I failed my task? I was supposed to warn Potter that he had to die to continue, to defeat the Dark Lord. I still did that, though, unless he was a fool and didn't take the memories to the Pensieve. Or was it the original task that I failed, protecting him? Dumbledore gave me two contradictory tasks, how was I supposed to follow them both?

None of this makes sense. Perhaps it's not supposed to make sense. Perhaps I will simply figure it out while I am here.

I think the best person to talk to about this is Lily. We've always discussed the improbable, I'm sure this conversation will go no differently.

Except that I blew my chance to talk to her a few years ago. Damn it. Who else could I talk to?

I try to remember now what happened back then. What happened after my mother died, though he is alive now? Does merely saving her affect others' actions in the past? I shouldn't think so, no one knew, I told no one.

After she had died, I had gone to the clearing. The one that Lily and I had spent so much time in. And… I remember someone approaching me, but I can't remember who. I wouldn't speak to them. I made them leave.

Maybe it's time to visit the meadow.

I stand from the sofa and mother looks up in confusion. "S-Severus? Baby, where are you going?"

"I have something I need to take care of. I may or may not return right away. Things are confusing right now."

She frowns and tries to stop me, but I leave anyway. I am a grown man, I can do as I please. Or, I was a grown man, and I'm not letting that change now.

My steps are quick because I'm a bit behind schedule. I don't see or hear anyone around me. Who the hell was it who ran into me that day?

"Severus! Severus, wait!"

I groan. I don't have time for Regulus' nonsense right now, I have someone to—

Regulus. That was who I ran into that day. Regulus Arcturus Black, the one child of Cygnus Black's that didn't end up a blood-traitor.

I pause and slowly turn to face the younger boy.

"Severus, it's not too late, you're not with him yet, you don't have to!" he gasped as he hurried after me. "Severus, I've found a way!"

I raise an eyebrow and hold out a hand to stop him. "Regulus. Calm down. What the hell are you on about?"

The boy doesn't have long to live anyway, so I may as well listen.

"I've found a way. To defeat him! You don't have to join him, we don't have to get rid of all of the Mud- Muggleborns."

It seems as though his brother did get through to him in some way. I am not sure if this is a good thing or not. Perhaps he simply recalled that I am not a fan of the term 'Mudblood.'

"People don't have to die, this war can be over before it really begins!"

"Regulus. None of this is making sense. So tell me, how do you plan on defeating him? Slowly, now, I'd like to be able to understand you for a change."

The boy looks like he is struggling not to explode with the information, to talk faster than a dragon can fly. Finally, he takes a deep, calming breath, and tells me.

"Horcruxes."

"Whore-what? Regulus, I don't think that whores—"

"Not whores! Horcruxes!" He then glanced around as though someone may have heard him. "Horcruxes, Severus. They split your soul into pieces, and then you can hide the pieces away and live forever."

Horcruxes? Split your soul? What in the—… Oh. Oh _fuck_. Everything makes sense now. What Dumbledore had sent Harry to do, what the boy had needed the Sword of Gryffindor for, why Voldemort was so on edge those last few nights.

"Regulus. What destroys Horcruxes?" I ask tentatively.

"Not much. Fiendfyre, Basilisk venom… that seems to be about it."

Basilisk venom. I know for a fact that there was a good supply of that in the castle. I had been granted permission to extract some from the dead Basilisk in the Chamber for Potions reasons purely, but hadn't been able to get in. Damn Potter and his Parselmouth.

And Potter had fought the Basilisk with the Sword of Gryffindor.

I had once brushed this off as a myth. Regulus had said something about Horcruxes on this day long ago, and I told him he was making things up and that I needed to be alone. I cannot believe how wrong I was. And how right little Reggie was for a change.

"I believe you."

"You do?" he asked, looking absolutely stunned.

"Yes, Regulus. You will never understand, but I have seen his horcruxes at work first hand. And I would like to help you get rid of them. It will be incredibly difficult, and we may need all of the help we can get. There's someone I need to talk to, first, however."

There was only one person whose intelligence matched mine, and one person who I trusted could help us with this task.

And that person was Lily Evans.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N

I'm so sorry for the long wait, everyone. I'm going to be moving to a new account. /~nomorestars

Crazy things have happened. I started college, failed my first semester, met the love of my life, decided I would drop out at the end of second semester, planned a future, the love of my life dumped me, lost those future plans, and then was kicked out of my house. I'm living in the dorms but by the end of the summer I could very well be in a homeless shelter, and without internet access. Until then, between trying to sell things on Etsy and trying to find a job, I will try to update.

I will be taking the following stories with me, re-beta them, and re-post them (but will leave their unedited versions here).

-Obsidian Fire  
>-Revisited, Replaced<br>-The Fairest One of All

You may see chapters missing, edited, or rearranged, particularly with The Fairest One of All. I suggest rereading and please, reviewing again c:

Thank you so much for everyone who has stuck with me this far.

-Sky


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